Hello friends, happy Wednesday – I hope you’re all having a good week so far! Today I’m posting my review of Corrie Wang’s novel The Takedown.

The Takedown by: Corrie Wang: When a video of Kyla having sex with her teacher goes viral, not just around school, but the city, she has to fight to prove that it’s not her in the video. Easier said than done, as even her closest friends start to doubt her. Now Kyla’s made it her mission to not only find out who her hater is, but to take down the video as well. As far as mysteries goes, this was pretty interesting to try and figure it out. The reader pretty much figured it out mid-way through, but the author chose to twist it up in the end. It made sense, and it’s satisfying as an ending, but it also felt like they were trying too hard to make it one person, when it was clear it was supposed to be another person. It felt like the author threw in that twist to compensate for it being easy to guess. As for the world, this novel took place in a future not so far from now, but far enough away where phones are obsolete and everyone uses something called a ‘doc’. It was pretty interesting, but the reader wished the pieces of technology were more fleshed out because it was hard to picture them or how to truly use them. The whole, everyone is watching/following you through this system was a bit creepy. The plot was extremely fast-paced and the reader was able to breeze through this. Between the short chapters and the aspect of trying, or wanting, to find out who was behind everything, left pages turning. The characters were very unlikable. No matter how many times the reader tried to get into them, they just never redeemed themselves. This went beyond the main characters being teenagers, they felt entitled and spoiled and sometimes just so whiny. There was a lot of just catty-ness between the characters who were supposed to be best friends, but they’d rather tear each other down. Even from the first page we’re told we wouldn’t like the main character, and we truly never do. She also says she’s not like other girls, so that was a bit of a turn off too. Overall, this had an intriguing storyline with some interesting futuristic plots but the characters really don’t do it for the story.